UltimateBet and Absolute Poker Casino set to open this week

Sometime this week UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are supposed to open up their casino (I am hearing Tuesday but these types of things are subject to many delays).  When I mentioned it to a friend of mine he said "who in their right mind would play at a UB casino", I do not think it would shock many people to find out that a lot of people would.  The Cereus Network, the software that both UltimateBet and Absolute Poker use, has been a pariah in the poker world for some time because of the cheating scandal that ultimately brought down 1994 World Series of Poker champion Russ Hamilton and the cheating before that by management at Absolute Poker.  So when you hear the yelps and cries of people protesting and generally getting worked up in a lather it will not typically be from people that play on those sites now.  All of the unhappy people left, the people that stayed are aware of the problems that faced network (if you think otherwise you are being naive) and if the cheating scandal has proven anything it is this, gamblers are creatures of habit.  For some they were not affected by the scandal and just take a laissez faire approach, I know many pros that made UB and AP their homes shortly after the scandal broke with the basic idea that if all of the good players have gone then all that are left are fish.  I am not so sure how that thinking has gone for them but a lot of good players have made a lot of money since the scandal, so there is something to the reasoning obviously.  

Does this kill our "skill based" argument

I think everyone assumed wrongly that the Cereus Network would even want inclusion in a regulated environment.  I say this based on conversations I have had within UltimateBet.  The management "post scandal" inherited a trainwreck, some would say that the old management is the same as the new management, I do not agree.  There were certainly some holdovers and to this day some logical steps to "move on" have not been taken.  Rather than getting into a looping argument about that I believe the current management tries to market outside of the winning players that post on forums figuring that if they focus on gathering casual players the regular players will remain, maybe unhappily so but they will stay for the feast.

So a casino is the logical next step for a management group that is mostly concerned with their product and trying to move forward.  As a poker player and an enemy of minus EV games I do not like this direction but from a business standpoint there is a demand.  Considering the amount of distaste most poker players have for their network it is fairly clear they do not care what we as poker players think.  This provides them another marketing vehicle.  What a lot of poker players do not realize is that online casino's are big business, the participants are mostly silent and they expect to lose.  I do not think even the most negative of poker player thinks like that.  

So to answer the original question, this does not kill pokers skill based argument because it is my conclusion that the Cereus Network never had any interest at all in being a part of regulation.

Big things coming

What is more vague is that there are some pretty big changes coming to both sites in addition to the casino.  If you are a player at either site this likely has you cringing in fear because these things have not traditionally gone well for the site.  When the network moved UltimateBet to the Absolute Poker software it felt like a downgrade to most UB players.  The reasoning at the time was that they had more control over the Absolute Poker side of things and could implement changes easier.  

In case you have not noticed

While most of the other sites are focused on a lot of other things the game offerings and focus on the product really show at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, possibly because that was the only way forward.  So I have to say from the poker side of things it will be interesting to see what they come up with.  Whether you like them or hate them innovation within online poker only makes all the sites better, so this could be interesting.

1 responses to UltimateBet and Absolute Poker Casino set to open this week

Adrian May
Saturday, January 30, 2010

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